Six minor boys working at an artificial jewellery manufacturing unit in Malad (West) were rescued by the police and locals on Tuesday.

Six minor boys working at an artificial jewellery manufacturing unit in Malad (West) were rescued by the police and locals on Tuesday.

According to the police, the relatives of two boys and a few locals approached them on Tuesday, informing them that minors were made to work for long hours at the unit, which is located in Malwani.

The police laid a trap to rescue the two boys.

“When we entered the place, we found six minors there. We rescued them and arrested the owner of the unit, Santosh Singh,” said a police officer from the Malwani police station on condition of anonymity.

The police said that all the boys are children of widows and hail from Uttar Pradesh. Singh had convinced their mothers that he would train them and get them good jobs. After being brought to Mumbai, the minors were confined to a room, made to work for 22 hours every day without any payment in return and were sometimes not even given food, the police said.

Mukesh Kumar, a local resident and a journalism student was part of the group that approached the police and informed them about the children. “We kept a close watch on the children over several days. The children’s relatives approached us for help and we assisted them,” Kumar said.